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The knuckleball is baseball’s version of three-card monte. When the pitcher is throwing strikes
with it, the hitter has next to no chance of finding the ball with the barrel of his bat.

Knuckleball specialist Steven Wright dealt eight scoreless innings of two-hit ball against the
Clippers last night at Huntington Park to help the Pawtucket Red Sox to a 3-1 win and a third
straight victory in the series.

Clippers hitters squared up Wright three times in 111 pitches, the majority of which floated to
the plate.

“It’s just moving all over the place,” Clippers catcher Chris Wallace said. “You’ve got to see
it up close. It’s a tough pitch. You never know what it’s going to do. He wasn’t throwing very many
balls with it. He was throwing strikes.”

Wright (4-1), a former Cleveland minor-leaguer, kept his knucklers slightly above the posted
highway speed limit of 70 mph, and the pitches changed lanes like they had a few too many at the
pregame buffet.

Jesus Aguilar touched him for a double in the fourth inning, and Justin Sellers singled in the
sixth. In the third with a runner on first base, Sellers hammered a ball to center that Corey Brown
caught on the dead run. That was as close as the Clippers came to scoring against Wright.

Toru Murata (0-1) came close to matching Wright through the first seven innings. He surrendered
a solo home run to Dan Butler in the third inning. In the seventh, Carlos Moncrief threw out Garin
Cecchini at the plate when he tried to score on Butler’s flyout to right.

“He was really good tonight,” Clippers manager Chris Tremie said of Murata, who allowed two runs
and seven hits in 71/3 innings. “He deserved to get a win on that. He mixed all his pitches up, and
he kept the ball down. … It’s about the best outing I’ve seen him have. It was great. I’d like to
see more of it.”

Pawtucket added to its lead in the eighth. Jonathan Herrera opened with a single and took second
on an error by Moncrief. After Mike McCoy sacrificed Herrera to third, J.C. Ramirez relieved Murata
and uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the runner to score.

Ramirez then walked Travis Shaw, and Carlos Rivero singled. Wallace threw out Rivero at second
on the back end of a double-steal attempt for the second out, but Alex Hassan doubled to score
Shaw.

Happily for the Clippers, Tommy Layne relieved in the ninth. He walked Tyler Holt with one out,
and Elliot Johnson singled to give some hope to the crowd. Aguilar grounded out to third to score
Holt, but Giovanny Urshela grounded out to end the game.

The Clippers open a four-day, six-game series at Indianapolis with a doubleheader tonight. Danny
Salazar is scheduled to pitch the opener, with the bullpen expected to handle the nightcap.